On SPREP’s Cooperation with China

Host: Among these strategic priorities, on which one or which ones are you going to have further communications and cooperation with China?

David Sheppard: In this stage we are just talking about options. But clearly China has a lot of experience relating to climate change, particularly your active work on renewable energy, your work on adapting – particularly in coastal zone – to climate change, your experience in biodiversity, and China has about 50 percent of your land area established as national park and scenic areas, for example. So you have a lot of experience. That would be a lot of benefit from making that experience available in the Pacific – and if we could both learn from each other. So we are hoping to explore avenues for increased cooperation on those areas and other areas that are relevant to environmental management in the Pacific.